forked from c-fu/arah2
chore(01-design-tokens-rams-foundation-01): commit design baseline — Rams docs, mockups, agent skills
- Root Rams design docs (DESIGN.md, IDEAS.md) and GSD install-fix notes (GSD_FIX.md, gsd-fix.sh) - Four Telemetry Rams mockup screens + telemetry_rams/DESIGN.md (canonical token frontmatter) - .agents/ project skills (design-taste-frontend) + skills-lock.json - .gitignore: node_modules/dist/env secrets/OS junk; .planning stays local-only; Zone.Identifier scrubbed (9 files deleted)
This commit is contained in:
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
|
||||
# Tells — the dated registry
|
||||
|
||||
A tell is a device that makes a page read as generated. Tells are not bad design in themselves; most
|
||||
began as good ideas on good sites. They became tells by being produced by default, everywhere, without
|
||||
a reason. That is why this registry is dated, and why it never names a replacement font, colour or
|
||||
component: every published "use this instead" list has become the next wave of tells within months.
|
||||
Replacements here are procedures (draw from the library, derive from the subject), not products.
|
||||
|
||||
`scripts/inspect.mjs` and `scripts/lint.mjs` detect most entries. Status: **banned** means the
|
||||
inspector fails the page; **warned** means it flags it and you need a reason.
|
||||
|
||||
## Contents
|
||||
|
||||
1. First wave (2023–2024)
|
||||
2. Second wave (2025)
|
||||
3. Third wave (2025–2026): the "fix" that became the look
|
||||
4. Gallery fashion, banned as house style
|
||||
5. Structural tells
|
||||
6. Copy tells
|
||||
7. Motion tells
|
||||
8. Why removal is not enough
|
||||
|
||||
## 1. First wave (2023–2024)
|
||||
|
||||
| Tell | Status | Do instead |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| Violet / indigo gradients on hero, buttons and glows | banned | The dealt palette; flat colour |
|
||||
| Gradient-filled headline text | banned | Solid ink |
|
||||
| Glass panels: backdrop blur, translucent cards | warned (2 or more) | Opaque surfaces one tone step from the ground |
|
||||
| Glowing or gradient "Get started" button | banned | Flat button named for its action |
|
||||
| Soft grey drop shadow under every card | banned | Tone step, or no box |
|
||||
| Three identical feature cards, each with an icon in a rounded square | banned | The dealt section blueprint |
|
||||
| Emoji as icons or bullets | banned | Words, or a real picture |
|
||||
| Centred headline, subtitle, two buttons, screenshot below | no rule; the draw avoids it | The dealt hero |
|
||||
| The same typeface on every generated page | warned (lint: default-font) | The dealt type system |
|
||||
|
||||
## 2. Second wave (2025)
|
||||
|
||||
| Tell | Status | Do instead |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| Eyebrow / kicker: tiny tracked uppercase label above every heading | banned | Fold it into the heading, or delete |
|
||||
| Pill badge above the hero headline ("New", "Beta", "Introducing") | banned | Say it in the supporting sentence |
|
||||
| One word of the headline in italic serif, colour or underline | warned | One face, one colour |
|
||||
| Bento grid of rounded tiles as the feature section | warned as card rows | A composed section; tiles only in the dense-tiles direction, filled, strict sizes |
|
||||
| Near-black ground with one neon accent and a glow | banned via shadow, gradient | A dealt dark palette, no glow |
|
||||
| Floating rounded pill navigation with blur | warned | A plain bar |
|
||||
| Fake dashboard hero built from grey bars and donut charts | no rule; see imagery.md §7 | A real interface fragment, or no image |
|
||||
| Decorative status dot ("Available for work", pulsing "live") | lint: bounce | Remove |
|
||||
| Fade-and-rise on every section | no rule; see motion.md | One signature move |
|
||||
|
||||
## 3. Third wave (2025–2026): the "fix" that became the look
|
||||
|
||||
The remedy published for the first two waves was "warm it up and make it editorial". Models adopted
|
||||
the remedy wholesale and it is now the most recognisable generated look of all.
|
||||
|
||||
| Tell | Status | Do instead |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| Yellow-cream ground + terracotta / rust / clay accent | banned together; terracotta banned alone; cream warned | The dealt palette. Warmth from a low-chroma stone, a deep ink, a photograph, or a full warm field |
|
||||
| High-contrast or soft serif display as the shortcut to "premium" | no rule | The dealt type system, whatever class it is |
|
||||
| Oversized italic serif headline | no rule | As dealt |
|
||||
| Broadsheet cosplay: hairline rules everywhere, zero radius, dense columns | banned via hairline | Structure from space and tone |
|
||||
| "Field notes", "Quietly trusted by", "On our desks": performative labels | lint: copy | Plain section names |
|
||||
|
||||
## 4. Gallery fashion, banned as house style
|
||||
|
||||
These are common on award sites right now. In the study they appear *more* often on the top-scored
|
||||
sites than on the weak ones (panel observations: monospace labels 44% against 24%, index numbering 38%
|
||||
against 21%; measured thin rules 61% against 52%). They are banned here regardless, by the owner's
|
||||
decision: they are the first things a generator copies from the gallery, they carry no information,
|
||||
and a page built without them has to find real structure.
|
||||
|
||||
| Tell | Status | Do instead |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| Monospace micro-labels, mono as a "technical" voice, mono captions | banned | The text face; tabular figures for data |
|
||||
| Index numbering: 01 / 02 / 03, (001), "Step 02", numbered section markers | banned | Order by position, scale, or the words; `<ol>` when it is truly a list |
|
||||
| Thin rules: hairline dividers, ruled grids, 1px outlined boxes and tiles | banned (boxes: 3 or more) | Space, tone steps, filled shapes, a thick bar if a bar is the idea |
|
||||
| Design-tool chrome as ornament: crosshairs, crop marks, selection handles, dashed guides, rulers | banned via hairline, dashed | Remove |
|
||||
| Agency micro-meta: local time, coordinates, weather, version stamps, "©2026 — Scroll", middle-dot strings | lint: copy; micro-label | Remove |
|
||||
| Tiny uppercase letter-spaced captions scattered around the viewport | banned (3 or more) | Sentence case at readable size, placed with the content it describes |
|
||||
|
||||
Tiny tracked capitals are the one item in this group the data condemns as well: 16% of top sites
|
||||
against 57% of weak ones.
|
||||
|
||||
## 5. Structural tells
|
||||
|
||||
| Tell | Status | Do instead |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| Headline as a full sentence at display size, three or four lines | banned (over two lines) | A title of about five words; the rest goes below |
|
||||
| Stock section order: hero, logos, features, testimonial, pricing, CTA | no rule; see copy.md §1 | The order of the argument |
|
||||
| Every section the same layout family | critique.md pass 9 | Different composition per section, from the sheet |
|
||||
| Everything centred | warned over 72% | Left-anchored, one centred moment |
|
||||
| One medium border radius (12–16px) on everything | none | Square or fully round, chosen once |
|
||||
| Nine nearly equal font sizes | warned over 9 | Five sizes, far apart |
|
||||
| Invented social proof: logos, quotes, star rows, "10,000+ teams" | copy.md §5 | Real proof, or none |
|
||||
| Text or a CSS box where a picture belongs | critique.md cap | A real picture, or a design that needs none |
|
||||
|
||||
## 6. Copy tells
|
||||
|
||||
Flagged by `lint.mjs`: the genre's verbs and adjectives (unlock, supercharge, seamless, elevate,
|
||||
effortless, cutting-edge, all-in-one …); the correction ("not just X, it's Y"); tricolon headlines;
|
||||
"Get started" and "Learn more" as labels; more than a handful of em dashes; lorem ipsum. See
|
||||
`copy.md` §6.
|
||||
|
||||
## 7. Motion tells
|
||||
|
||||
Identical fade-up on every block; a dozen staggered hero entrances; hover lift on every card; bounce
|
||||
easing; infinite loops that mean nothing; reveals that fail and leave a blank band. See `motion.md` §9.
|
||||
|
||||
## 8. Why removal is not enough
|
||||
|
||||
A page with every tell removed and nothing put in their place is an empty page with good manners, and
|
||||
that is a tell too (the "avoidance aesthetic": anyone could guess it from the category plus the list of
|
||||
things to avoid). The tells were filling a gap where an idea should have been. The order of work in
|
||||
`SKILL.md` exists to fill that gap first: the idea from the subject, the dealt composition, real
|
||||
pictures or committed type, and only then the checks.
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user